Plant Powered Consulting (AKA Alfano Advisory Services) Leadership Team
Elysabeth Alfano
Elysabeth began her career with The Kellogg Company in Brand Management on Special K and Frosted Mini-Wheats before branching out to consulting on brand values, brand strategy and mapping, and communications and marketing strategy. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Elysabeth has become a substantive and renowned thought leader in food systems transformation. In this capacity, Elysabeth also consults and advices C-Suite Executives on the sustainable food industry landscape, direction and whitespaces, along with strategies for entering and succeeding in the market.
Elysabeth speaks internationally on the intersection of investing, sustainability, and our global food supply system. She recently spoke at the U.N. Global Leaders Compact Summit, the United Nations Climate Change Summit, COP27, Yale University and several Bloomberg Intelligence events among others.
Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest, the Advisor to the Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV and the creator of the non-tracking Plant-based Innovation & Alternative Proteins benchmark index, EATVi. She focuses on educating Wall Street on food systems transformation and driving Wall Street capital to the sector.
Lastly, Elysabeth hosts the Plantbased Business Hour, a podcast which features the CEOs and business leaders in the industry. The Plantbased Business Hour is considered “The Gold Standard” for those who want to understand, participate in, and capitalize on the growing Plant-based Innovation sector. She contributes to ESG Clarity, Vegconomist, Upside & Impact, and FinTechTV on a regular basis. LinkedIn here.
Zach Halpern
Zach possesses over 15 years of natural industry sales and management experience, during which time he has held leadership roles at various multi-national beverage brands, in addition to holding C-level and fractional sales management roles for several startup food and beverage brands. Thanks to this broad CPG experience as well as personal experience with launching a frozen food brand, Zach has an indent understanding of the intricacies of the natural and conventional retail world while also offering the perspective of both small and large organizations.
Over the past few years, Zach has provided strategic consulting services to many cutting edge CPG brands, helping to develop airtight Go To Market plans that avoid potential pitfalls that could be encountered on the journey towards building a successful CPG brand. With a true passion for better for you and better for the world brands, Zach considers it a dream to be working with these brands to make a difference globally.
Zach has earned an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a concentration on Marketing and Entrepreneurship along with a BA from Binghamton University. In 2022, Zach completed the Cornell University Certificate Degree in Plant-based Nutrition.
Jeffrey Harris
Jeffrey Harris has been a vegetarian since 1974 and a vegan since 1996. He studied psychology and philosophy at California State University of Northwridge from 1979 through 1982.
In 2010, Jeffrey had begun to contemplate the idea of building a nationwide chain of 100% plant-based fast-food restaurants in order to introduce millions of consumers to the benefits of a plant-based, sustainable, and cruelty-free diet. He eventually created the company Plant Power Fast Food which opened its first restaurant in San Diego California in January 2016 and completed that year with net sales of $1.1 million.
Although he remains a major shareholder, Jeffrey stepped down from his position as CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Plant Power Restaurant Group, LLC in November of 2022 in order to pursue new opportunities in the rapidly expanding plant-based and sustainability segments.
In June 2023, Jeffrey accepted the position of Strategic Advisor at Unreal Deli, a cutting-edge plant-based deli and sandwich meats company creating premium clean-label products using whole vegetables.
Steve Pilarski
Steve Pilarski is a strategic operational consultant in the plant-based and conventional food manufacturing industries, who uses his extensive experience and knowledge of food manufacturing and food service to help companies create structure and expand their capabilities to enable growth.
For 20 years, Mr. Pilarski co-led the growth and development of a wholesale bakery which manufactured more than 50,000 items per day and employed 230 employees. Mr. Pilarski maintained budgetary responsibility for product manufacturing, purchasing, warehousing, co-packing, fulfillment, distribution, and a significant portion of sales. He also supervised a fleet of 30+ vehicles and coordinated the purchase of 500+ inventory items. Under Mr. Pilarski’s purview, the bakery grew in sales and EBITDA by 18x.
Bonnie Brown, CPA
Bonnie Brown is a senior-level executive and entrepreneur with broad experience in finance and accounting, management, information systems, and business leadership. She is the co-founder and CEO of New Earth Partners, providing outsourced CFO and accounting services to companies working to take animals out of the supply chain.
She is the Board President and Treasurer of Little Bear Sanctuary – a safe haven for farmed animals, and the Board Treasurer and Secretary of New Roots Institute, formerly the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition.
Bonnie brings a rare combination of high-level finance, working with C-Suite as the CFO of a publicly traded company, and a deep passion for food systems transformation and animal-based philanthropy.
Gwendolyn Brown
Gwendolyn has recently received her Bachelor of Arts in film and digital media from Loyola University Chicago. She has worked with multiple radio stations editing audio clips and running her own radio show on WLUW. Along with running a YouTube channel about her life and music for 10 years, she has been writing blog posts and editing audio and video for Elysabeth Alfano since May of 2020.
Most recently she has become the Fractional Communications Director for VegTech™ Invest.
Bryan Dennstedt
Bryan began his professional career at tech giants like IBM and Xerox as an E-Commerce Developer.
Bryan is currently the Fractional CTO and Partner at TechCXO, where he provides thought leadership to companies that need the benefits of a Chief Technology Officer. His role as a business counselor and fractional CTO in the Charlotte area solidified his reputation as a versatile and insightful business mentor.
Bryan is more than an advisor; he’s a mentor, a thought leader, and an inspiration to those aspiring to make a difference in the green economy.
